What follows is a list of the things that I found important in chapters 5-7:
- Is the whole cavern hospital episode a metaphor for a birth?
- Saint-Girons is an acutal place on the border between Spain and France. The French translation of girons is bosoms.
- "Then he lost even this feeble grasp on illusion and began to sink deeper and deeper into the pit of catatonia: of womb silence, womb darnkess, and womb sleep" (pg 73).
- "The cells that line the winding passages of Gouffre Martel are cut out of living rock" (pg 71
- Even the calling of Earth "Terra" is suggestive of the birth metaphor. Terra is the Greek goddess personifying Earth
- "When escaping Gouffre Martel, Gully "struggled, suffocated, felt the swift current drag him against the chill slime of rocks, and then he was borne bubbling to the surface" (pg 87)
- At the final escape from the rocks beneath Gouffre Martel, they must pass through an underwater tunnel (pg 87). Is this a birth canal?
- "They sank down on the soft grass again, weary, but unable to rest, eager, impatient, all life before them" (pg 89)
- When he first speaks to Jisabella, she is described as his "angel" (pg 73)
- "Gouffre Martel" the name of the cavern hospital, however, is something that Bester made up. Gouffre translates from French to mean "pit." Martel seems to be a reference to the father of modern speleology and a world famous cave explorer.
- Gully's routine in prison:
- Food must be eaten within 15 minutes because plates/cups will dissovle in 15 minutes
- Attire is made of paper then repulped into clothing again after it has been used
- Gully creates things for the prison through the 3D TV
- Therapy talks, lectures, etc. on moral fiber and ethical guidance.
- Does it work? Is it making Gully a better person?
- Blue Jauntes
- The Whisper Line - Described by Jisabella as a "miracle" (pg 74)
- Women's rights personified by Jisabella McQueen
- "You don't know what jaunting's done to women, Gully. Its locked us up, sent us back to the seraglio" (pg 74)
- A seraglio according to Jiz: "A harem. A place where women are kept on ice. After a thousand years of civilization (it says here) we're still property. Jaunting's such a danger to our virtue, our value, our mint condition, that we're locked up like gold plate in a safe. There's nothing for us to do...nothing respectable. No jobs. No careers. There's no getting out, Gully, unless you bust out and smash all the rules" (pg 74)
- Jisabella McQueen - Does that make Gully a king of sorts?
- Gully's progression into intelligence
- "You're still like a wild beast trying to punish the trap that injured you" (pg 75)
- "Learn to think...no more bombs; brains instead" (pg 75)
- "What's the strongest chisel in the world if it doesn't have an edge?" (pg 76)
- Jiz's description of herself? Weird? and a lie? "I'm an old hag, Gully. A hundred and five years old" (pg 76) Why lie?
- Is Gully "bearing the cross" while in Geoffre Martel?
- "He was marched up to the end of the north corridor where it met the three other main corridors that formed the huge cross of the hospital" (pg 78)
- If he is "bearing the cross," then is his escape from Gouffre Martel his "ascention"?
- He is entombed in rock and finds his way out...interest
- Is Dagenham the devil?
- "He is described as "the ghost of an image with a blurred body and a death's head. Two black discs on the skull face were either eye sockets or infrared goggles" (pg 78)
- His conversations with Gully consist of Gully telling Dagenham to "go to hell" (pg 78)
- Gouffre Martel is described as a "labyrinth"
- The original labyrinth was from Greek Mythology again. It was created for King Minos to hold the Minotaur, a creature that was half man half bull (sound like Gully?)
- Pg 81 - Gully is called a "caveman"
- Pg 81 - Gully smashes the thin plastic that is "masking" the cave.
- Pg 88 - The boulders that Gully traverses with Jiz are called "dolmens"
- "The night was impenatrable, but they heard the soft sigh of night wind, and the sweet scent of green growing things came to their nostrils. Far in the distance a dog barked" (pg 89). Is this Eden-esque? Are Gully and Jiz like Adam and Eve?
- "Suddenly they became aware that they were nude, lying close, no longer separated" (pg 90). Sounds like they have just come to the kind of knowledge that Adam and Eve get after eating the apple...Hey, what tree does that apple come from...the Tree of Knowldege...hmmm...doesn't Gully just get an education while he is in Gouffre Martel?...yeah...cool
- Harley Baker's Freak Factory
- Harley Baker tells Jiz that he just got a fraternal cyst (pg 92) - I didn't find much on this. One person posted that Bester is referring to the idea of fetus in fetu, where one of a pair of twins becomes enveloped by the other twin. Wow! talk about masking!!
- Why does Jiz not pay for the anesthesia? Interesting. Then pay for anestesia. Interesting
- St. Elmo's Fire
- "Don't come prowling around like a damned tattooed tiger figuring how to pounce" (pg 97)
- "Cruelty to dumb animals" (pg 97)
- Sam Quatt's idea of what the happy life is:
- "It's having everything you wanted when you were a kid. If you can have everything at fifty that you wanted when you were fifteen, you're happy" (pg 98)
- "That's what worrying me. You realize, Presteign, that if Baker removed the tattoo we'll never recognize Foyle?...We've never seen his face...only the mask" (pg 104)
- Jiz's hair gathered at the nape of her neck and floated out like mermaid's tresses.
- Mermaid's are, again, mythological creatures. However, they aren't all Ariel. They are really known for their ability to distract sailors with their alluring song. I wonder what is in store for Gully with Jiz around...
- Gully and Vorga and Jisabella..sounds like a love triangle (pgs 108-109)
- "Foyle overran the asteroid with the sudden fury of a Vandal raid" (pg 109)
- Gully's face!!! Blood red tiger markings when he is angry...is this a symbol? (pg 111)
- "You'll never get rid of this stigmata" (pg 113). Cruxcifiction wounds. Gully has cruxifiction wounds...